Some dreams

Voyage of Discovery


Have you noticed how when you are sitting in a moving train and the lush green paddy or the golden yellow wheat fields run alongside undulatingly you tend to not notice them after a while.

The outside landscape merges into the far bigger landscape of the mind. Thoughts gallop and race each other almost as fast as the train. Past, present and future merge into a delicious haze, you smile and frown by turns as the sad and naughty thoughts race each other.

On my last train journey as I was travelling alone, occupying a side berth of a sleeper compartment these jaunts were that much the more easier to indulge in. The train's rhythmic movement lulled me into a state where fact and fiction made for a sometimes terrifying, sometimes fascinating concoction.

There came a time when I completely lost sense of time and place and had travelled to those moments in my past when I had been happy or atleast thought had been. Some of the things which had really touched me at the time now made me just smile. Smile at my own foolishness and naivety.

Some others a small gesture, a frown on a beloved face, a leaf which had come twirling down from a giant tree to fall on my book as I sat reading, things which I had not placed any importance on, seemed so very important now. I realised how I had not paid them adequate attention at the time and now they are gone forever and my breathe caught in my throat.

It brought me back to the present, I saw that the landscape had changed to a heavily wooded area, as the train passed I could see herds of deers running alongside, a small one stood there looking with its large innocent eyes at the train, poised for flight yet rooted to its place at the awesome sight of the rushing monster.

I thought about what thoughts must pass its mind as it stood there (I do believe that animals have thoughts, I know my Crazy does and other animal lovers concur) What did the train look like to the deer?

Perhaps a huge python which may attack him at any moment or did he think that it was a foolish giant running away, making so much noise and not even stopping to sniff and chew on the wonders the abundant forest provided?

My thoughts then somersaulted to a few years ahead, the lands I would visit, the waters I would traverse, the people I could meet. I thought of all the interesting places I had glimpsed through my books and wondered what interesting events would mark my sojourn at each. I wondered if my travels then would be as lonely as now or would a companion share my experiences? Each enriching the other's life and thoughts bringing that special extra to them which makes life so much more meaningful.

And in this way meandering through the endless landscape of my mind exhausted and yet refreshed I reached my physical destination -